Google's Android Studio Delivers a Full-Feature IDE for Mobile Apps

No one can say Google doesn't provide solid development tools to help developers build applications for its Android mobile operating system. For an example, look no further than Google's Android Studio Integrated Development Environment, which provides all the tools you need and it's fairly easy to use. When Android Studio starts, a wizard lets you quickly create a new project. The wizard includes several steps that let you specify the application name and Android API version. You can define the layout as master/detail, full-screen or log-in. Then you can set up an application icon, which can be a default icon, one of your own creation or even text. If you choose text, Android Studio will create an icon for you with your chosen text, color and font. After running the wizard, Android Studio will create the complete project for you, including the resources, XML files and source code. This full-featured IDE also includes a code editor with such standard features as syntax highlighting and auto-complete. When you open a designer file, you can use Android Studio's built-in WYSIWYG editor for designing the layout of your application. Android Studio also works hand in hand with the standard Android Debug Bridge (ADB) tool, allowing you to debug your applications in the emulator, a physical device or even a virtual device running in a virtual machine manager such as VMware. This eWEEK slide show highlights the features that make Android Studio an effective development platform.